I am a strong believer in the idea that we are what we do, especially what we do repeatedly. With that in mind, I thought I would break down some of the places immigrants find themselves majority of the time. Take a moment and think about it; where do you spend most of your time? Does spending it there make your life better? Does it make anyone else’s life better?
Have a look at the list below and see where you fall. In descending order:
1) Place of Work: It doesn’t matter whether you are coming here as a student, on a working visa or through buying government bonds. We are a hardworking lot, most of us anyway, and we have an insatiable appetite coupled with great material ambitions.
Try and make your place of work as nurturing and positive as possible. You will spend a lot of time there.
2) University libraries: Lectures and tutorials are basically the tip of the iceberg. If you are here as a student, you will spend countless hours in study groups, study sessions and probably checking out your exes Facebook profile. Carry a lot of nutritious food and a great deal of patience and perseverance. It’s only a few years anyway….Enjoy it!
3) Drinking Sessions/ Fellowship sessions: Depending on which side of the religious divide you fall, you will either spend most of your “free time” getting plastered or you will spend it getting lost in the spiritual relm. Make sure that you have good people to hold your hand. You’ll need them for those dark moments (whether tough questions that crop up in the midst of your spiritual oddysey or through passing out)
4) House Parties and Get Togethers: Much more informal than the drinking and fellowship sessions. This is basically where you get your heart to hearts and get to spend hours talking about nothing but realizing that it’s worth everything. These will be the most rare of times especially because of the time taken up working. Cherish these moments.
5) Concerts, Parties and Festivals: Whether it’s going to a Malaika concert, or going to check out the rugby, these may be rare but you’ll probably talk about them long before and long after they are gone. Never forget though, it’s not about the event, it’s about people and what people do during the event. So perhaps do something worth talking about.
6) Worship: Some of y’all will be immaculate with your church attendance. Some of you will only stop by the church if sme1 has died or there’s free food and/or music. You will meet some great folk here who can really stand by you and make your life and world better when you need it the most. Contribute to this community.
7) Online: Well you’re reading this aren’t you? The Internet is a bit like a printer (bad analogy, I know but stay with me). It will only print out what you input into the computer. In the same way, you will only get out of your Internet experience what you consciously seek online. If you are simply in the market for empty sensations there’s more than enough of it online.
If you want to learn how to do JUST ABOUT ANYTHING the information can be found somewhere online. You have the power, please use it wisely.
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Tags: African churches, African immigrant, African immigrant social life, African social life
Work. (check) Concerts and Parties (check) Online (check) then the Outdoors/parks/beach, gym, friends houses and cafes….makes life seem so simple…
@gal: Something I realized about myself quite a while ago, is as complex as I’d like to think I am, I am just really a bunch of habits repeated over and over and over again…..hmmmm….the gym was a tricky one, it is a minority that goes to the gym or plays any type of sports on a regular basis, so it rarely goes into an African’s top 7.
WOW,pretty,I know where I often find myself in,its mentioned! Well I have no otherwise,at least not now,but I do not regret,as long as I go to bed saying,”fyuks,another day is gone!” then am cool,no?
@Carol: Could you please rewrite your comment. I don’t understand what you just said ???
Reread it to understand,I said the place i am moest if the time is said above,by you! And that I am so happy there,to be open,its number 7. Understood?
@Carol: Aaah, I had to reread them both about 7 times but I think I finally understand…you are saying that the place you spend most of your time is online and that you are glad every night when you get to bed to see another night has gone by. Cryptic but I think I got it. Do I got it?
So Mwangi where do u fall mostly? Being a Friday as it is I can c ur probably not the party animal. And hey whats your comment on the life in Oz say compared to UK or US for the African immigrant? Also can u explore migrations among these countries by Africans and the challenges involved. I know all that may require a new blog but a few points would suffice for now. Otherwise good work you are doing with your site.
PS: SOme music on the side may spice up the site.
@Mzeiya:
1) Online, definitely. Though this is my life’s work and so it’s part of number one. At the moment I am online roughly 6-7 days a week though it wasn’t always this way and there are breaks every so often, yesterday I went for bible study like this weekend where I shall be out and about going to parties and the like. Haven’t seen Uni libraries for a while……….:)
2) At the moment I am working on a newsletter where I basically cover all of that, hopefully I should have it done by the end of next week BUT I will answer your question in two ways:
a) I want to know that myself: Now that the blog has a good foundation and I am almost finished setting everything up, I really want to get out there and get people’s opinions on living in different countries in terms of racism, economics, the immigrant culture and so on and so forth. I asked for help in my 100th Post. If you happen to be an immigrant living in another country, please share your experiences. Definitely keep your eyes peeled, I will figure out some way to get that info from the minds of immigrants onto the blog.
b) I have touched on life here,through various posts but some good posts that explain things unique to the Australian experience include my guide to immigrating to Australia in a week, my post on racism in Australia and my post on working more than 20 hours (though that is for students). But rest assured THAT’S EXACTLY what I want this blog to be about. What I write now I write simply because I am limited in time and in experience and so let me repeat I definitely want to get out there and record this stuff.
Thanks for the kind words. I do put music on this site every so often, like tomorrow’s post where I feature a smooth Naija track I just found, but it’s more depending on how I feel that day rather than something I must do…I try to limit the things I must do on this blog as much as possible to avoid being all over the place….write posts everyday, respond to all comments and go out there and spread the word about my blog somehow.
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on other posts.
Yess!!!!!!!!!!! Mmmmmmuah!
I once opted to be a teacher but thought students will never underetand me and will therefore ger zeros in Physics,then say its a hard subject.
Oh I should not have commented here today coz I do not consider myself an immigrant,at least not now, and hope not ,ever! Its past 1am there,sleep!!!!!
@Carol: Success :D. That one was definitely a puzzle to figure out. I hope this blog can still be of some use to you though it is aimed at the African immigrant. My time to work is midnight to 6a.m.-that’s my prime time – so I’m wide awake and will be for the next few hours.